A man who, using an old double-decker bus, built himself an ultimate camper van, rather than renting some grotty flat during his studies. All that spannering, and the slow but steady build up of mechanical knowledge brought China to our screens, where those 13 seasons of Wheeler Dealers set him up as a two-metre tall, walking and talking Haynes manual with a shock of greying hair and those ever-present gloves.
Given that we now need such gentle entertainment more than ever, what does he think of the current state of motoring programmes on the telly? I think what was interesting was the honesty about the show, and the lack of a competition element. That is perhaps the crucial point about those early episodes — there was no threat, no element of chasing something.
You need to spend a lot of time to get all the shots. And I think that gave us something unique, and our fans something unique. Education with a side-order of soothing. Intricate manual labour, even by proxy, has a curiously relaxing quality to it.
But if you have even a bit of knowledge, you feel like you can stand your ground a little more, and I think people appreciated that. Certainly, watching the reruns, Wheeler Dealers is at once far more relaxing and satisfying than the more excitable imitators which have since sprung up.
We have a YouTube channel, and so the plan is to do more with that. And some of the more whimsical things, we want to get around to doing. For instance, I want to set a land speed record in the electric ice-cream van that we built some years ago.
Oh, and we have to actually serve ice-cream before and after each run. He also has plans to try and track down a vintage Bentley , once owned by an uncle, in which he was, as a child, driven at more than mph.
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This tells us he spent a lot of time in that area, which is a lovely place to spend time. Following his primary academic career, he knew that he was going to college.
He graduated from the London South Bank University. However, the truth of the matter is that Edd China is a married man. His wife is from Norway. Her name is Imogen. It probably keeps it fresh and happy that way. Call it creative differences, if you will. If you thought that his departure from television was the worst thing that ever happened to television, you are not wrong in the eyes of many fans. A rare glimpse into the personal life of Edd China is a real treat.
We just love that. They might like to keep their marriage as private as possible, but they like to spend a lot of time together. Edd China is not a man who wants the world up in his personal business all the time. He likes what he does, but he always makes us feel as if the fame is not something he would be sad to see go.
He knows that learning is important, and he thinks most people realize it, too. He feels this is one of the biggest reasons why he was so popular on his hit show.
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